that's why we're here. >> i guess we all feel a little bit like charlie brown and the football. i mean, we'd like to think that as something as important as this negotiation that we might see a little progress as we get through the public posturing, but no, we got to go through the public posturing to identify the differences, to point the fingers before we can get down to substantive talks. >> look, public posturing is hugely important in washington. what politicians do. but i would caution you not to assume that there's no progress being made. you know, behind the scenes, there is paper changing hands between both sides. you know, we saw neighbors, the president's white house liaison up here on capitol hill walking back and forth between harry reid's office and mitch mcconnell's office today. we know they're speaking to one another. we don't know what they're saying. this is very much a negotiation. john boehner was offered the opportunity earlier today at his press conference to say that talks had broken down or he was walking away from talks. he kind of laughed that question